Tennessee starting pitcher Nick Hernandez trudged off the mound toward the dugout with the fourth inning unfinished Friday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Not exactly the exit he had envisioned for the opening game of an SEC series with No. 1 Georgia.
On the other hand, at least he wouldn't have to face the guy standing in the on-deck circle again.
Rich Poythress tagged Hernandez for a pair of home runs, one in the first inning, the other in the third, to get the Bulldogs off and running to a 12-6 win over the Vols.
Game Two is set for today at 4 p.m. (WNML-FM 99.1 and 99.3) as Georgia (20-3, 5-2 SEC) tries to sink UT (11-13, 1-6) deeper into the SEC East cellar.
It's not as if the Vols didn't see Poythress coming.
The preseason All-America first baseman came to town on a 12-game hitting streak in which he was batting nearly .500 and had slugged five homers and knocked in 18 runs.
He went 4-for-4 Friday as Georgia pounded 15 hits. Four of them were home runs, en route to an 11-0 lead after five innings.
"Nick has been pretty good this year,'' said UT coach Todd Raleigh. "He wasn't tonight. I guess he was due.
"He left (pitches) up each time and (Poythress) hit 'em. You combine that he's a good hitter and he's in the zone and that's double jeopardy.
"We couldn't get him out.''
Tennessee, meanwhile, didn't achieve its second base hit off senior right-hander Trevor Holder (5-1) until the sixth inning.
That's when Cody Grisham and Zack Osborne had back-to-back doubles, followed by Cody Hawn's 11th home run, which cleared the center-field screen.
Grisham, who bats in the eighth spot, had three hits. Six of UT's nine hits, in fact, came from the bottom third of the order.
"I got a lot of pitches to hit,'' Grisham said. "I don't know about the other guys.
"(Holder) had a hard fastball and a very good slider. He did a good job hitting his spots all night.''
Hernandez (1-3) was charged with eight hits and seven earned runs.
He was long gone by the time the Vols' bats awoke.
After scoring three in the sixth, the Vols got two more in the seventh to make it 11-5. Doubles by Mike Hornsby and Grisham and a single by Osborne curtailed Holder's night.
"The bottom of our lineup guys were swinging the bats tonight,'' said Raleigh. "I thought we did a good job of battling back. We just dug ourselves in a big hole.''
Stephen McCray pitches for UT today. Grisham thinks the Vols will get some carry-over from their late-inning rally in a lost cause Friday night.
"Our hitting's good,'' he said. "Once we get rolling, we'll be fine."
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
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Comments » 9
UT_Thread_Head writes:
amen **sigh**
memphis_vol_fan writes:
All we need is that one pitcher who brings it 90+ every start. Only problem is that the're all going out of state. RECRUIT THE MEMPHIS AREA. THEY ALL COME FROM THERE!!!
gohawks1 writes:
Fore?
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Hernandez is 1-3 with a 5.50 ERA on the year. Opponents are batting .294 on the year against him. Raleigh says he's been "pretty good though". OK, Foolmore.
edvol writes:
Sad sad sad. our program gets worse every week
crappieking writes:
FIRECOACHTODDRALEIGH.COM
rockytopfrog writes:
Do our uniforms have butterfly collars? No wonder we suck. We look like we should suck. Some of the worst uniforms I've ever seen.
gmoneyvol writes:
What an awful team. Bad year for UT sports, all around.
cobbwebb writes:
wtf? i thought this team would really be good this year! hell, i thought we would at least make the SEC tourney!
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